COMES TO TOWN

LAURA CERWINSKE

Laura Cerwinske announces the launch of

All rights reserved by Laura Cerwinske Art work may not be duplicated without permission. Purchase of original Laura Cerwinske artwork does NOT transfer any rights of copyright. Copyright remains with Laura Cerwinske.

MR. SLICK COMES TO TOWN

by Laura Cerwinske

Mr. Slick comes to town... and all the girls are jazzed.So begins Laura Cewinskes comic tale in words and pictures. Unamused by the consequent dither of Mr. Slicks arrival, The Empress Fulfaggotra unleashes a force of superheroes, artists, and unsuspecting angels. A surreal frolic to restore Her Grace ensues, and Love, naturally, is the reward.

Mr. Slick6

comes to town

and all the girls

8

are jazzed.9

Even Lady Liberty

10

lifts a salute.

The Empress12

Fulfaggotra,

however,

is not amused.13

Still, Barry Zaid and Celia Cruz

throw open their arms,

14 15

while Popeye comes along, followed by

16

Bugs and Wonder Woman.

17

The Giant Green Baby then throws a steriodal rage which

18

extracts an appearance from Superman.

Ooooooo.

The Blue Hair Lady and The Man with the Tangerine suit hold hands,20 21

22

while Polly spills the beans...

23

Wouldnt you know, Mr. Slick has other ideas,

24 25

26

...and heads for Niagara Falls.

27

Mistakenly, he lands in Salem where

28 29

the artist Dina Knapp has sewn

30

a picture of her dream.

The Monas watch...

32 33

as did the neighbors.

34 35

But then, aghast,

36

the Patriarch,

took typical revenge.

37

Still, the girls find it a hoot.

38 39

Exploding heads...

40

and...43

glowing44

heads45

and women

with sure strength,

46

kneeling artists47

and exultant

dames

48

49

including the Inca angel

50

and Little Red Writing Hood,

51

and all the girlfriends...

52

agree.

The Empresss new clothes

54

are about to appear.

55

Cast your eyes upward.

56 57

and hear the Graces...

58 59

Love

is Fulfaggotras message.61

Halleleulah!

Take your frolic seriously.

The promise is this big. Mami Wata says so.

63

Louis, the best of all drawing models, knew...

64

and it showed.

Love and frolic are the answer. After all, you can always find them...66 67

ABOUT THE

ARTISTSmusic of Verdi, the absolute soul presence of the Maori woman, Aroha Wainui, and images from her inner life of dream and contemplation. Learn more about Judith Hoch at www.judithhoch.com Barry Zaid is an illustrator and graphic designer who lives in Miami Beach. His illustrious career has included the design of the original Celestial Seasonings packaging, book covers and book designs for numerous publishers worldwide, posters, greeting cards, type designs, and all manner of other graphic products. Before he could read, he loved the shapes of the letters on the packages in his fathers grocery store. When in his teens, he produced signs...combining letters and images... for neighborhood stores. Posters produced during his student days led to his lifelong career. Learn more about Barry Zaid at www.barryzaid.com Richard Protovin was a painter and filmmaker. His obsessive love of drawing led him into a passion for animation, and he founded the New York University School of Animation in the 1980s, before the use of computers. He was also an acclaimed abstract painter. Richard, who died in 1991, was beloved for his generosity and stupendous sense of the Ridiculous. Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven was an early 20th artist known as much for her personal costume and performance as for her collages and assemblages fash

Laura Cerwinske makes art and books. Her continuous body of work, produced throughout the last forty years, includes painting, sculpture, drawing, collage, assemblage, print and digital photography, photo styling, art directing, and book design. Like Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, she also supported herself as an artists model. Many of the Lauras images in this book, including Mr. Slick and The Empress Fulfaggotra, were taken as part of a photograph series of window displays (perpetually in progress). Mr. Slick, a Mad Man, if ever there was one), was actually photographed on New York Citys Madison Avenue. The Girls (pages 3-4, 34), The Ladies Liberty, ( pages ), Superheroes (pages 13-14) Bugs Bunny and Wonder Woman, Betty Boop, and the Glowing Heads (pages 38 40), were photographed in store windows on Fifth Avenue. The Empress Fulfaggotra continues to appear in a window on Miracle Mile in Coral Gables, Florida. Judith Hoch is an artist and anthropologist who lives half each year on the South Island of New Zealand where she paints, practices and teaches yoga, and cultivates and is reforesting forty acres of gardens and trees. The inspirations for her various series include the spontaneous, natural icons of the early Neolithic in southeastern Europe, the woodblock prints made by artists attending witch executions in early modern Britain and Europe, the

THE ARTISTS CONTINUED

ioned from found materials. Usually impoverished, she supported herself throughout much of her career as an artists model. She was a friend of Marcel Duchamp and many of the New York Dada crowd. A published poet, she was lauded as, the first American dada the only one living anywhere who dresses dada, loves dada, lives dada. Dina Knapp is a textile artist and maker of wearable art. Her playful, colorful work draws on the high style and high jinks of the imagery of 1940s and fifties resort life. Her clothing and fine art collages and assemblages have been exhibited throughout the U.S. Learn more about Dina Knapp at www.dinaknapp.com Ciro Quintana Ruben Torres Llorca David Chieppo (p. ) is a cultural portraitist who was born in the U.S., but has resided in Switzerland since 1998. His luscious paintings could be called figurative abstractions of humanity seeped in pristine isolation.

ABOUT THE

CHARACTERS

Mr. Slick lives for excitement. Once he gets the girls jazzed, he can get away with just about anything. He is expert at the fond gaze, the warm palm, the ready, grin. A master of distraction, Mr. Slick thrills to games, prizing his ease at arousing in others whatever desire of heart or loins best serves him. He reserves his feasts of vengeance for those who most wish to love him. He is insatiable. The Goddess Fulfaggotra (page 4) represents the incarnation of Beauty, Creativity, Sensuality, the Extravagant, the Voluptuous, and the Ridiculous. Her mythology, created by Laura Cerwinske, is described as follows: In a heavenly collision of constellations, Creations two most powerful deities Imagination and Passion were sent rocking from their celestial cradles into the sparkling web of Divinity. Imagination grew to embody Beauty, Creativity and Sensuality; Passion ruled the Extravagant, the Voluptuous, and the Ridiculous. Out of their embrace was born a Daughter whom they called Fulfaggotra. The name, of Fauxmaic origin, derived from Fulfaggotore, meaning to Celebrate, to Decorate, to Animate. Imagination and Passion lavished upon Fulfaggotra a life of wisdom and exuberance. They guided her in accordance with the constellations; taught her the lore and law of the forests; and provided gardens

THE CHARACTERS CONTINUED

for cultivation of her daydreams. They welcomed companions of all ages and tongues, and they encouraged her in good deeds and prayer. They tutored her in the healing, creative, and martial arts. They trained her as a hunter, a warrior, an artist, and healer. They taught her nurture and benign rule. In time, Fulfaggotra grew to be the most powerful deity in all the Heavens. Universally adored, She took lovers on land and sea and populated every continent with her Earth-worshipping children. She cultivated civility among migratory creatures. She wove enchantment into the rituals of life. Eventually, Fulfaggotras power came to outweigh, overshadow, and outlast that of all other deities in OurStory. Mami Wata (page 62) is a plural noun that connotes the myriad, ancient water deities of Africa, whose priesthoods are matriarchal. Mami Wata once inspired not only African cultures but also the ancient Anatolian, Middle Eastern, Greek, and Roman traditions. Mami Wata deities are often half mermaid, half reptile or fish, primordial deities who were the bringers of justice, and who established complex theological, moral, social, political, economic and cultural foundations. She says, I hold the mysteries of your life. All will be well. Judiths series Stop the Executions (page 29) depicts images from the centuries of witch trials that decimated much of the worlds population of wise women, midwives, and herbalists. The Patriarchs represent the beliefs and actions of the rational, linear mind as it is invested in hierarchy, acquisition, domination, accumulation, measurement, consumption, complexity, compartmentalization, punishment, and vengeance. The domination of patriarchy over Fulfaggotry and its excessive application over the last eight millennium has robbed humanity of creative and sexual power, turning fundamental aspects of humanness that once were celebrated into cause for shame. Patriarchy run rampant has resulted in the cavalier desecration of the earth. In Albert Einsteins words, The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR/PUBLISHER

As the author of more than 20 books on art, architecture, and design and as a practicing artist,

Laura would love to: Develop books for you. Curate

Laura Cerwinske is devout in her love for Creativity. In fact, her passion is so nourishing, she wishes she could eat it. She considers Creativty to be a spiritual endeavor. Combining this understanding with her long experience as a writer, Laura developed Radical Writing, an online course that teaches the technique and rewards of uninhibited self-expression. Laura grew up not only during the heyday of the original movie and television cartoons, but as the daughter of one of the animators for the Fleischer Studios which produced, among other classic animations, Popeye and Betty Boop. Accordingly, Laura views life with a comic eye, and her Goddess creation the Empress Fulfaggotra reigns largely through a sense of the Ridiculous. Laura has created an assembly of altars, icons, and artifacts used in the worship of her goddess creation and known as The Art of Fulfagottry. Lauras publishing company, Blue Hair Lady Publishing, is devoted to books and art that reveal the joyful intensity of Creative power. The publications are excursions through the secrets of transformation, weaving memoir and mythology, metaphysics and art, quantum thought and healing.

Enjoy Lauras blog, Lauraputsoutwords,pictures,ideas, where she writes about and illustrates topics ranging from dogs and neighbors her Affair with the Chair. Sign up for here Lauras monthly eblast with her images and recommendations for films, videos, books, artists, and metaphysical miscellany.